BUSINESS JOURNAL
F O R S O U T H W E S T M O N TA N A
THE LONG, COMPLEX REACH OF ST OR Y B Y L E W I S K E N DA L L
BEFORE ITS ACQUISITION by global tech giant Oracle in late 2011, RightNow Technologies employed roughly 500 workers spread out among its Bozeman offices. At the time, the customer service software company, founded by tech mogul and current U.S. House candidate Greg Gianforte, was the city’s largest employer and only publicly traded company, generating roughly $185 million in annual revenue. Following the $1.5 billion sale, many of those 500 employees kept their jobs under the Oracle umbrella. Others, however, chose to strike out on their own. Since 2011, former RightNow employees have helped form at least 15 startups in and around
A TASTE OF BRAZIL Clocking in with the owners of Oba Cafe PAGE 3
APRIL 25, 2017
RightNow Technologies BU S I N E S S JOU R NA L E DI T OR
Bozeman, from a small hat making operation to a nationally recognized software company. While by no means the first tech company in the Gallatin Valley, business leaders look back on the splintering of RightNow as a pivotal moment for an area that has recently emerged as a national hotbed for tech and entrepreneurship, describing the sale as a “cash bomb” and the “lightning strike that started life from the primordial soup.” “I would have never arrived in Bozeman if it hadn’t been for RightNow,” said Mike Meyer in a phone interview last week. The seventh person in the door at RightNow, Meyer worked as the company’s CTO before leaving shortly after its acquisition to work with New York
City-based tech startup Dataminr. In October 2015, Meyer formed Quiq — formerly Centricient — a customer service messaging platform that has since grown to employ 28 workers in its downtown Bozeman office. “Neither one of those would be here if I hadn’t come to Montana,” he said. A recent report released by the Montana High Tech Business Alliance — for which Gianforte serves as board chair — on the “entrepreneurial ecosystems” of Missoula and Bozeman further emphasized the importance of RightNow as an industry catalyst. More RIGHTNOW on Page 9